Thursday, September 08, 2005

Some more on the Mark Suppelsa piece on the funds sweep and Blagojevich administrations response from Bradley Tusk.

The fact remains: It looks hypocritical. Take "pet friendly" license plates, for example. The state says the extra fee helps spay and neuter animals. It's not meant to pay state bills.

"I think when someone's buying a license plate, they're not thinking -- nor do I think there's any awareness of -- the license plate fund in the Secretary of State's office. They want their license plate, they're getting their license plate," says Tusk.

Umm Brad, they might get that idea from the Secretary of State web site (the Pet Friendly page in fact) From the site.

The Governor signed legislation into law on January 11, 2002 that allows for the issuance of Pet Friendly license plates.

Proceeds from these plates goes into a pet overpopulation fund to provide money for spaying and neutering Illinois Companion animals.

So did the governor realize that is was going to end up as general revenue funds when he signed the legislation?

Perhaps they didn't go to the website, the brochure (at least the PDF version on the web site) has this...

Pet lovers across the state know the importance of keepingtheir animals healthy and safe. But pet overpopulation canbe a problem if dogs, cats and other ÃcompanionÃ animalsare not properly spayed or neutered and allowed to roamfree.My office offers pet lovers the unique opportunity to supportanimal population control in Illinois by purchasing a set ofPet Friendly License Plates. Proceeds from the sale of theseplates go into a fund to provide money for spaying andneutering Illinois companion animals.Pet Friendly plates provide a great way to show your love ofanimals and even say something special about your pet withvanity or personalized plates.Jesse WhiteSecretary of State

Umm Brad I don't know where someone would get the idea that the money from the 'Pet Friendly' plate would actually go to helping pets and spaying and neutering animals.